I worry about children not having a sense of any direct connection to the past.

Disconnection or alienation from the past has political consequences.

Everyone who sits on a sofa watching 'Match of the Day' is a top soccer expert, as you know. So if you start to worry about such people reading your story and saying, 'That'd never happen' you're going to freeze up. You're writing fiction, and your characters can do whatever you need them to do.

I don't really see any barrier between teenage fiction and adult literature.

Fundamentalism - of any variety - is a form of illiteracy, in that it asserts that it is necessary to read only one book.

I was taking my first uncertain steps towards writing for children when my own were young. Reading aloud to them taught me a great deal when I had a great deal to learn. It taught me elementary things about rhythm and pace, the necessary musicality of text.